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1940 Census, New York
Jun. 7th, 2012 11:50 amCourtesy of the folks at Ancestry.com, the data for the 1940 Census is available online for selected localities. New York City is apparently one of them.
On April 1, 1940, my father Carlos, a white, single, 32-year-old male was a "Guest" at the Mills Hotel in New York City. He had not attended school or college at any time since March 1, 1940 and is shown as having completed three years of college. His birthplace is shown as Indiana.
(Side note: The census form's column heading for place of birth (a) distinguishes "Canada-French" from "Canada-English" and "Irish Free State (Eire)" from "Northern Ireland" and (b) provides the following guidance: "If foreign born, give country in which birthplace was situated on January 1, 1937." A reminder that borders were pretty fluid then, just as they are now.)
The census was interested in knowing where a listed person was living on April 1, 1935, and "Huntington, Indiana" is shown for my father; a separate column notes said the residence was not on a farm.
My father had not been "AT WORK for pay or profit in private or nonemergency Government work during the week of March 24-30," nor had he been "at work on, or assigned to, public EMERGENCY WORK (WPS, NYA, CCC, etc.) during the week of March 24-30," although he had been "SEEKING WORK." At the time the census was taken, my father, a newspaper reporter, had been unemployed for 17 weeks. He had worked for 40 weeks in 1939, earning $1,400 (which sounds strange to my modern ears, since that's about what I pay the bank every month for the house today).
On April 1, 1940, my father Carlos, a white, single, 32-year-old male was a "Guest" at the Mills Hotel in New York City. He had not attended school or college at any time since March 1, 1940 and is shown as having completed three years of college. His birthplace is shown as Indiana.
(Side note: The census form's column heading for place of birth (a) distinguishes "Canada-French" from "Canada-English" and "Irish Free State (Eire)" from "Northern Ireland" and (b) provides the following guidance: "If foreign born, give country in which birthplace was situated on January 1, 1937." A reminder that borders were pretty fluid then, just as they are now.)
The census was interested in knowing where a listed person was living on April 1, 1935, and "Huntington, Indiana" is shown for my father; a separate column notes said the residence was not on a farm.
My father had not been "AT WORK for pay or profit in private or nonemergency Government work during the week of March 24-30," nor had he been "at work on, or assigned to, public EMERGENCY WORK (WPS, NYA, CCC, etc.) during the week of March 24-30," although he had been "SEEKING WORK." At the time the census was taken, my father, a newspaper reporter, had been unemployed for 17 weeks. He had worked for 40 weeks in 1939, earning $1,400 (which sounds strange to my modern ears, since that's about what I pay the bank every month for the house today).
